THE JUKES. loi 



class such as the habitual criminals usually are ? How incompetent 

 they are for ordinary avocations of industry is seen when we find 

 that 78 per cent of criminals in State prison are without trades, 

 although their average age is 27 years, while only about 44 per cent 

 are 20 years old and under, and none less than 16. 



In the second place, some criminals make large fortunes, com- 

 pound their felonies, and form examples of successful crime which 

 allure the ambition of lesser rascals, just as the mercantile success 

 of A. T. Stewart stimulates the ambition of a neophyte trader. It 

 is quite true that they run the risks of imprisonment, but the 

 average human mind is constituted to run risks. The miner, the 

 engineer, the sailor risk their lives without hesitation for wages 

 averaging from $15 to $150 a month and board; why should not 

 the criminal be satisfied to run the lesser risks of his profession 

 just as other men do in theirs. The question ceases to be : " Does 

 crime pay on the average t " but " will it secure a prize in the 

 lottery of chances t " 



As the question presents points of practical use in the manage- 

 ment and repression of the criminal class, aside from mere disputa- 

 tion. Table XVII. has been prepared, selecting 38 cases of habitual 

 criminals, whose testimony on the questions at issue is deemed 

 sufficiently trustworthy to be accepted as approximately correct. 



From this table the average duration of criminal life of each 

 habitual criminal amounts to 11.55 years, of which 7.84 are spent 

 in criminal liberty and 3.71 in prison. Here we have a measure of 

 crime risks which is far below the hazards of a miner, for, while he 

 holds himself ready to spend 300 days, or 82 per cent of his life, in 

 an occupation the conditions of which are far more onerous than 

 that of imprisonment, and the remuneration of which yields not 

 much above the bare necessaries of life, the criminal only gives up 

 34 per cent of his life to secure 66 per cent of license and self- 

 indulgence. Furthermore, it appears that the average number of 

 convictions in 12 years is 4.55, or one conviction in two years and 

 six months. This accords with the estimate of one convict, that 

 " there is from two to three years' average between commitments." 

 For each commitment, the table shows an average of 146 offenses, and 



